The Cape’s great white hope 16 October 2006

Angela Lloyd enthuses about the blended white wines at the CWG’s recent
pre-auction seminar

The Cape’s white blends, specifically premium white blends, continue to pique interest, even if it's presently more enthusiastically expressed by members of the media rather than the general wine-drinking public.

This general lack of excitement at the category is hardly surprising when the term ‘white blends' encompasses every quality level from a commercial three million-litre blend such as Arniston Bay's Chenin Blanc-Chardonnay to Vergelegen's flagship semillon/sauvignon. This might be an extreme example of disparity, but the distinction is rarely made and is not helped by catchall categories on the show circuit and other panel tastings.

It was with the idea of gaining more recognition for the premium blends that the Cape Winemakers Guild organised their pre-auction seminar titled ‘White blends – the great white hope?’ In the light of the relatively modest price (by CWG standards) Bruce Jack received for his Elim ‘Weather girl' sauvignon/semillon blend on the following day's auction, the question mark in the title seems relevant.

As is fast becoming apparent, top-end white blends in South Africa are falling quite neatly into two different styles: one the one hand the so-called Mediterranean blends, featuring, inter alia, viognier, chardonnay, chenin and grenache blanc; on the other the more strictly defined Bordeaux-style mixes of semillon and sauvignon blanc. Local and foreign examples illustrating each style formed the basis of the CWG tasting.

The Mediterranean blends are the more heterogeneous bunch. Many contain viognier but, as is obvious with trendy red blends with a contribution from this grape, a little of it can go a very long way - it just loves being a tall poppy, which is not at all the point of a blend where the whole should be greater than the parts and with none of those parts so obvious as to make it appear as a varietal wine. Those who've got viognier to cooperate - Eben Sadie with his Palladius and Hilko Hegewisch with the Solms-Delta Amalie - are making individual, expressive wines and justifying the excitement with the category.

So much attention is given to the in-vogue viognier that its partners are often overlooked, grenache blanc in particular. This variety is little known (and very little grown) here, yet is already having an impact in blends. In the sextet of Mediterranean styles presented at the CWG tasting, this grape was a prominent feature: in the Palladius and Amalie, in Châteauneuf's Le Vieux Donjon (where it is mixed with clairette blanche and roussanne), Bouinand Côtes du Rhône (with marsanne), and in the Sierra Cantabria from Rioja, where it is a permitted variety along with viura and malvasia. At this tasting, only Fairview Goats-do-Roam, a more commercial style, does not make room for grenache blanc in the eclectic blend of chenin, crouchen, semillon, viognier and clairette blanche.

Some, who associate chenin with the Loire only, question its place in a so-called Mediterranean blend. However, Richard Kelley MW, a chenin aficionado who used to work in the Cape, points out that chenin is ‘grown around the northern radius of the Mediterranean and it plays the same role, to a greater or lesser extent, as we are now seeing in the Cape'. He cites the well known Mas de Daumas Gassac white, a blend of viognier, chardonnay and chenin, as well as other producers in Roussillon and even Spain's Penedès region, who use chenin either in a blend or solo.

The wines showed good weight and richness, balanced by all-important acidity, leaving the message that warmer climate wines don't have to be too heavy, flabby or oily.

These emerging local Mediterranean blends are building a strong association with the Swartland area. It is a link that currently provides a good marketing angle, but as others beyond the Swartland explore the genre, another focus will have to be found (but let's hope this isn't a compulsory `ingredient'!).

Sauvignon and sémillon
Producers of the white Bordeaux style wines have no such problem; indeed, beyond knowing that they share the same varietal mix, it is not difficult to find a strong thread of similarity among these blends, whatever their origin. A big compliment when the crème de la crème of the Graves region of Bordeaux were in the line up: Domaine de Chevalier, Châteaux de Fieuzal and Laville Haut Brion, as well as Château Yquem's Y [Ygrec] – the dry version of the celebrated Sauternes.

Vergelegen's Platter five-star 2005 prompted the most discussion at the tasting, and easily held its own in this company. Even Nico van der Merwe's Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon, which doesn't pretend to aspire to the same level, showed a family resemblance and proved what a compatible, food-friendly partnership these two white varieties forge; it drew many favourable comments, not least for its excellent value.

The linking factor there isn't one area, but rather the cooler spots close to maritime influence; broader but no less neat than the Mediterranean commonality of the other style of wines.

The CWG seminar was a useful and well-illustrated introduction to what premium white blends are about; they are adding dimension and quality to the already more interesting white wine category. Surely the less than full house at the tasting had more to do with inadequate marketing than with the interest of the subject.